‘Where am I?’ she croaked, squinting myopically up at them. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Erika had a sudden urge to laugh, and had to bite her lip.
‘My darling!’ Colin cried, elbowing Peterson out of the way to kneel beside her. ‘You had a funny turn,’ he said, in a soft voice at odds with the hard slaps he’d administered to her face.
‘Vicky. Murdered?’ she said, squinting at them both and then up at Colin.
‘Yes,’ said Erika.
‘But I was, she was, in my house… What? How?’
Cilla groped at the air with her arms and Colin helped her to sit up and smoothed her cape down to preserve her modesty. She put her fingers to her cheek where a red hand mark was showing, and Erika thought she saw a brief flicker of annoyance cross her face. Colin helped her over to sit on the sofa.
‘Would you like some water?’ asked Peterson, crossing to a water cooler in the corner of the room.
‘I think I need something stronger,’ said Cilla. Colin nodded, and went to one of the shelves, where he took out a couple of leather-bound books. He retrieved a bottle of Glenlivet whisky from behind the row of books.
‘I presume you are both on duty,’ he said.
‘We are,’ said Erika. Colin filled a couple of the plastic cups from the water cooler with whisky, and came back over. He handed one to Cilla, and she took it with trembling hands. Erika noticed that Colin was trembling a little too. They both took a sip.
‘How did it happen?’ asked Cilla in a small voice.
Erika briefly explained the circumstances.
‘Tess found her, in her own kitchen? Oh my God, that’s awful. And she was stabbed! Oh, Vicky. Who would do that?’ said Cilla. Her bottom lip started to tremble and Colin took out a folded white handkerchief from his top pocket and gave it to her. Cilla started to sob. Erika glanced at Peterson, and he raised an eyebrow.
‘Do you have any idea who did it? Any suspects?’ asked Colin, speaking over the top of Cilla’s head as she buried herself in his jacket, pressing the hanky to her face. There was now a vivid red hand print on Cilla’s face.
‘No, we don’t,’ said Erika. ‘Cilla, would you be happy to answer a few questions, if you feel up to it?’
‘Now?’ said Cilla, dabbing her eyes. ‘You’ve just told me about the loss of a dear friend.’
‘Please. It could help.’
She took a deep breath and appeared to centre herself. Colin stayed beside her.
‘This may seem like an odd subject to start with, but what did you know about Vicky’s podcast?’
‘Her podcast? I know that it was very good,’ said Cilla. ‘We both listen to it, don’t we?’ She looked up at Colin and he nodded.
‘What made her start doing a true crime podcast?’ Cilla pulled a confused face. ‘Please, understand, I’m going somewhere with this.’
‘Vicky really struggled with getting work when she graduated,’ said Cilla, looking down at her plastic cup. ‘She got an agent, but he wasn’t a particularly good one. She has… had a very good broadcast voice, so I suggested she try and get into voice-overs. That’s all I did.’
‘Did anyone else at GDA help Vicky?’
‘I think Vince, who runs the technical team for the theatre here at GDA, gave her some advice on sound equipment.’
‘And, of course, we were happy, at GDA, to come on board and help with casting,’ said Colin.
‘Oh, yes, casting,’ said Cilla.
‘What do you mean, casting?’ asked Erika, thinking she’d misheard.
‘For the characters. Have you had a listen? Every episode has additional characters,’ said Colin.
Erika and Peterson looked at each other, unable to disguise their shock.
‘Darlings, didn’t you know that Vicky’s podcast was fictionalised?’ said Cilla. Her voice had a nasty sweetness to it.
43
Erika could feel them suddenly on the back foot. If the podcast was part-fiction, then what was Vicky working on before she was murdered? An investigation, or a story?
‘We know that Vicky worked on the script herself,’ said Colin.
‘She did, and it was very good writing,’ said Cilla, still dabbing at her eyes with the hanky. ‘But she needed voice actors for all of the additional characters, and we helped with that.’
‘Hang on. We’ve listened to the episode about the Croydon Cat Killer,’ said Erika. ‘That is a real case, and we know because the police have been dealing with it for several years.’